Category Archives: Christian Life

GOD IS LIGHT

Christian Life, ,

GOD IS LIGHT

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

The big tree in my neighbour’s yard has gone, cut down a few months ago. Now the sun shines in my eyes in the early morning, a blinding light I can’t escape unless I draw the curtain.

I can’t help thinking of descriptions of God in Scripture, so bright a light that He outshines the sun. “God is light,” wrote John, “and there is no darkness in Him.” He cannot cast a shadow because there is no light brighter than He. His light is all-consuming; none can stand alone in His presence.

A great hymn, written by Thomas Binney (1798 – 1874}, encapsulates this awesome truth, that no human can gaze on God’s glory and not be consumed… but God has made a way for us to see Him and not die.

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!

How pure the soul must be

When placed within Thy searching sight

It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live and look on Thee.

The spirits that surround Thy throne

May bear the burning bliss,

But that is surely theirs alone

Fot they have never, never known

A fallen world like this.

O how can I, whose native sphere

Is dark, whose mind is dim,

Before th’ Ineffable appear

And on my naked spirit bear

The uncreated beam?

There is a way for man to rise

To that sublime abode,

An off’ring and a sacrifice,

A Holy Spirit’s energies,

An Advocate with God.

These, these prepare us for the sight

Of Holiness above;

The sons of ignorance and night

May live in the Eternal Light

Through the Eternal Love.

What a reason to praise and adore Him, the three-in-one God!

FULLY MATURE

Christian Life, ,

FULLY MATURE

“So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” 16 Ephesians 4:11-16

Spiritual maturity, like holiness, is one of those Bible “goals” that we often dodge or ignore because we don’t know what it means or how to get there.

The Apostle Paul often wrote about being “complete” in Christ, or “fully mature”. He expressed, as his goal, the desire to present his beloved saints across Europe and Asia Minor…little pockets of believers who came to Christ directly or indirectly through his ministry… fully mature.

Paul was not content to make converts. His goal was to make disciples. He wanted his converts to be so connected to Jesus that they would, like new-born babies, thirst after and grow into mature believer in Christ.

How would he achieve his goal?

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Colossians 1:28-29 NIV

Paul worked with the Holy Spirit to achieve his goal. It was a divine/human partnership led and energised by the Spirit and carried out by Paul.

There were many obstacles to overcome on this journey to maturity – false teachers sowing seeds of deception, fallen human nature demanding to gratify the desires of the flesh, power struggles and conflicts among individuals and groups wanting their own way, baggage from their pagan past that kept reappearing, etc.

Paul was patiently sowing truth into the minds and hearts of people whose life philosophies were formed in a godless environment. What an impossible task… if he had to do it alone.

What are the elements of spiritual maturity?

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Colossians 2:2-3 NIV

The Apostle John, in his first letter, gives us the two commandments of the New Covenant.

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

1 John 3:23 NIV

So, essentially, Paul and John were in agreement regarding the goal of the Christian ministry. Through teaching and admonishing, ie, the tools by which every believer is rooted and grounded in “the faith” – who Jesus is and who we are in Him – and through guiding them by teaching and example, into expressing their new life in Christ by loving one another, believers live out in practice the life of Jesus in them.

So, that’s, what it means to be fully mature.

Do you get the picture of maturity now?

A mature church is a group of people who are

1. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

2. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John 13:34-35 NLT

” I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”

John 17:21 NLT

FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

Christian Life, ,

FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7

I am a fan of Bear Grylls. In case you don’t know who Bear Grylls is, let me tell you about him. He is a British adventurer and survival specialist. He hosts a programme on TV called “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” in which he takes celebrities on a two-day adventure into the remotest, most inaccessible and inhospitable places on earth.

The Amazon jungle, Colorado mountains, and the snow-covered peaks of the Dolomites in northern Italy, the Nevada desert, the steep cliffs on the coast of Wales, and even the remote interior of the Great Karoo are his playground. He guides his novice adventure companions through impossible terrain to survive the rigors of the journey to their extraction point.

He takes no food, eats what they can find, sleeps in caves, under trees, in holes in the snow, in hastily constructed shelters, or just wherever he and his companion can be safe.

Bear’s most important piece of equipment is his rope. It is long, strong, and reliable enough to bear his weight and the weight of his companion, sometimes together, scaling mountains, rappelling down steep cliffs, slipping and sliding down frozen waterfalls, and crossing raging torrents and deep gorges.

However, Bear’s experience and survival skills have taught him that confidence in his rope is not enough. If he does not anchor his rope around a strong object that will support a heavy weight, he will fall to his death if the anchor gives way. He uses chunks of ice, boulders, trees, clumps of bushes and even a crevice in a rock if it grips the rope firmly enough to secure it.

Bear’s adventures in the wild teach us a powerful  lesson about the nature and purpose of our faith.

Ancient Hebrew words reveal some of the secrets of God’s truth. Take the word “wait” in Isaiah 40, for example.

“… Those who hope in (wait on) the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”

Isaiah 40:31 NIV

The word “qavah”, here translated “hope”, is often translated “wait” in other versions. Its origin is the idea of twisting, referring to a rope maker who twists strands of thread together to make a sturdy rope.

While we “wait” for or “hope” in the Lord, we twist together our life experiences to develop our “rope” of faith. God often delays His responses to test the genuineness of our faith in Him or, to change the metaphor, He puts our faith through fire, like gold, to remove the impurities.

So, if our faith in God is genuine, like Bear’s rope, our rope will be strong enough to bear our (wait) weight when the severe tests come.

However, as important as our faith is, since it is our only link with God, we must also be sure of the object of our faith. To what or to whom do we anchor our trust when we have mountains to climb or deep gorges to cross?

Who is the God upon whom we depend? Is He the great “Sugar Daddy” in the sky whom we can manipulate to give us what we want? Is He the sovereign God whose character and motives are so flawless that we can trust Him to make the best choices for us? Is the One to whom our faith is anchored worthy of our trust?

There is expression believers often use that unwittingly reveals their “anchor”. “I am trusting God for…” This is the Sugar Daddy tree or bush or rock on which their faith depends. This “god” does not exist since he does not fit the description of the God of the Bible, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is misplaced. Trust in this “god” will always disappoint us.

Bear’s adventures have yet other important considerations… the motive for their journey and the goal which they strain to reach, their extraction point. At the end of their journey is a vessel or vehicle that will take them home. Their destiny is not to remain in the wilderness but to take the lessons they have learned with them as they go on in life.

The two adventurers don’t allow beautiful views or intriguing discoveries to distract them from reaching their goal. Home is where they are headed regardless of their experiences on the way.

We also must consider the motive of our faith in God. Take Job, for example. There was a sting in the tail of Satan’s taunts when God drew his attention to Job and his upright character. Was God baiting Satan to test the motive of Job’s faith in Him?

Was Job’s trust in God “Sugar Daddy” faith, or was he firmly anchored in God’s character, no matter what?

Job initially subscribed to the philosophy of his day, expressed in the accusations of his three so-called friends. “God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.” Therefore, Job must have done wrong to have been so severely punished.

Job’s denial of wrongdoing flew in the face of this shaky belief. He was forced to rethink his values and his motive for trusting God even in the severest of trials. Would he give up on God because his faith had failed to get him what he wanted? Would he keep trusting even if he had no explanation for his trusting?

At no point did God, in His response to Job’s adamant defence of his innocence, explain His actions. To have disclosed the conversation between Himself and Satan would have ruined and thwarted the purpose of the test.

Did Job blame the devil for what he was suffering? No! His issue was with God, not the devil, and the challenge to his belief that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.

God’s silence frustrated Job. Where was God? Why didn’t He answer him? The more he questioned God’s motives, the deeper he got into his own muddled thinking until God had had enough. “Shut up, Job!” He shouted. “Listen to me.”

God’s challenge to Job shook him to his foundations. Job had to learn that he had no part in God’s creative power and wisdom. “Where were you when I did all this stuff?” God demanded.

God’s response smartly put Job in his place. Since He was solely responsible for all the mysteries and miracles of nature and was not in consultation with or answerable to Job, He was under no obligation to explain His actions when He permitted Job to be stripped of his wealth and comforts to the bone.

Did Job pass the test? Was his motive for trusting God pure or tainted with selfishness and greed? Apparently, God’s confidence in Job’s integrity was not misplaced. Satan lost the challenge. Despite Job’s misery, grief, and complaints, never once did he give up on God. Time and again, he affirmed his faith in some of the loftiest statements in Scripture. “I know that my Redeemer lives…” and “… when I am tested, I shall come forth as gold.”

Job’s final response was to repent in dust and. ashes. God was right and he was wrong.

What of our motive for enduring suffering with a robust faith in God? What is our motive for hanging on to our rope when we can’t see the bottom?

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess what the goal and motive of our faith is. God Himself tells us His dream.

Paul expresses God’s heart in one sublime and confident statement, “We know…”

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Romans 8:28-29 NIV

“… In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose….”  This is the God to whom we anchor our rope… the God who has the power and the will to work in all things for our good because He has a motive and a goal.

When we embrace His motive and goal for us, we are right on track to reach our “extraction point” and to go home.

So, what is our motive for trusting Him? We know that He is painting a bigger picture on a bigger canvas than we can see. A family of sons and daughters, exact replicas of His beloved Son, is what He is working on, on His canvas.

How will He accomplish His purpose? By chipping away, through hardship, trial and suffering, everything that obscures the image of His Son in us. What does Jesus look like? A perfectly submissive, obedient, and trusting Son, guarding His unity with the Father no matter what it cost Him because of the love that binds them together.

When we are distracted by the tinsel and trinkets of a transient world by our “trusting God for…” we exchange our God-given goal of likeness to Jesus for self-centred ambitions that take us on a deadly detour to end in loss.

Only calm assurance that God’s goal is best will keep us through suffering with joyful anticipation of its outcome.

And His motive?

“… That he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Jesus, always Jesus!

For more information on the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the firstborn in the Bible, clearly explained in the article, “Why is the firstborn so important in the Bible?”, go to gotquestions.com/firstborn-in-the-Bible.html

God has exalted Jesus to the highest place as the supreme authority (Lord) over all things. So, in the end, all the glory for who He is and what He does and has done, must reflect on Him.

“Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians 2:9-11 NIV

If our suffering and hardship does not accomplish the goal for what it is intended, that we be transformed into the likeness of Jesus, we will never see the bigger picture. If our motive is not to endure with patience and joy the trials we experience because of the outcome that Jesus may be exalted through us, then we cannot rejoice in the glorious future the Father has planned for us. Our faith will have been a futile exercise, achieving nothing.

BY FAITH, ABRAHAM…

Christian Life, ,

BY FAITH, ABRAHAM…

8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:8-10

Abraham’s story is a fascinating account of one man’s journey into faith and obedience. Since he is the father of faith and the man God chose to be the recipient of the New Covenant in embryo, there are many lessons from his life that can help us understand our journey of faith in Jesus.

In the past few days, as I have journeyed with Abraham in the book of Genesis, two aspects of his life have emerged.

Abraham made many decisions which did not come from any interaction with God but they impacted directly on fulfilling God’s plan for his life. He left Ur of the Chaldees with his father, went to Haran and stayed there until his father died. This was his first step towards Canaan but he was not aware of God’s purpose for him at this point.

Then God told him to leave Haran but left Abraham to find the way under His silent direction. Abraham chose Canaan, not knowing that Canaan was to be his destination.

Abraham moved from place to place in Canaan, setting up altars and worshipping God as he went. His godly influence impacted the Canaanites and especially the Canaanite kings of the city states so that he became well known all over the country. By setting up altars, he was claiming the territory by faith for God.

Although Abraham made the choices to do as he did, apparently without clear instruction from God, his developing God-awareness allowed him to be open to divine guidance without being aware that he was being led by God.

How often we, too, make choices which, on hindsight, are exactly what God wanted us to do or where He planned for us to go without being told.

If we allow God-awareness to guide our thinking, we need never be afraid of making decisions without specific direction from the Holy Spirit. As God’s children, we are led by the Spirit if we are more concerned about God’s kingdom than about pandering to our flesh.

A mature son will not pester daddy about every tiny detail of his life because he knows that daddy trusts him to make wise decisions. Likewise, our Father trusts His mature children with everyday decisions and guides him along His chosen path as His children acknowledge Him in all their ways.

Abraham also has much to teach us about prayer. The Bible does not explain how God came to him on the many occasions interaction with Him are recorded. There is one record of the Lord appearing to him as “the angel of the Lord”. This phrase occurs often in the Old Testament. This “angel” speaks and acts as God and so, we assume that He is the second person of the Trinity, the pre-incarnate Jesus.

However, on this occasion, when the angel prophesied of Isaac’s birth and the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham took the cue  and “prayed” for his nephew, Lot’s deliverance by entering into a discussion with the Lord.

Why did God even want to share His decision to destroy the wicked cities of the plain with Abraham? It was all about relationship.

This was no “dear Lord Jesus, here’s my prayer list” kind of prayer. This was Abraham’s opportunity, through humble but bold negotiation with God for the protection of the righteous, to share in what God was about to do. Abraham’s real concern was for Lot and his family but his plea for the Lord to change his mind encompassed any other God-fearing people who we in danger of being destroyed.

I learn from this incident, and many other times when God held a conversation with Abraham, that prayer is so much more than a one-way string of “gives” and “do’s” that we daily present to Him.

I am also becoming wary of the daily “quiet time” that is so ingrained in us from the time of our new birth that we feel guilty if we miss out even one day. How often I have begun my day feeling bad because I have not had a quiet time because of circumstances. Does that mean that God feels so short-changed that, for spite He messes up the rest of my day?

What a tragically low view of our Father whose love for us is beyond measure and deeper than our wildest imagination or understanding. He is so entwined in the fabric of our lives that He wants much more than a hurried “quiet time” in the morning, only to be forgotten for the rest of the day.

Paul said, “Pray continually.” That means, stay in contact with God all day. Abraham shows us that we can converse, even negotiate with God in every detail of everyday life, from the most significant to the most mundane and unimportant details of being human.

In the end, it’s about cultivating a God-awareness that keeps us in God’s presence instead of our trying to bring Him to us when things go wrong or needs arise. It is surprising how much He talks to us of which we are unaware because we are so preoccupied with getting on with the business of living.

So, let’s meander through the Bible, stopping a moment here or there to ponder on the stories of people’s lives. Let’s tarry to smell the fragrance of a holy moment or to shrink from the words or actions that grate on our sensitive souls. Let’s slow down and learn from God’s great saints how to be in every way, God’s beloved sons and daughters.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON DISAPPOINTMENT

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A FEW THOUGHTS ON DISAPPOINTMENT

We all experience disappointments, big or small, on our journey through life. What is disappointment? Why are we disappointed?

Disappointment is a feeling of being let down or betrayed when our expectations are not met. We continually place expectations on God, people, or circumstances, many of which are unreasonable or of which the other person has no knowledge or is incapable of fulfilling for whatever reason.

The expectations we have of God are usually based on ignorance, or misunderstanding of who He is, or on what His will and purposes are for us. We pray for things we want, or for God to change the circumstances which make us uncomfortable or unhappy. We make demands of Him based on our own will or wishes instead of submitting to His greater wisdom and purposes.

When nothing happens, we are disappointed, and we hold God accountable for not answering us as we expected. We sometimes even lose faith and walk away because He didn’t do anything for us.

On the other hand, when we fail in our walk with the Lord, we are disappointed with ourselves and we impose our disappointment on God as though He doesn’t know us better than we know ourselves. We beat ourselves up for our failure and fall into depression instead of viewing ourselves as God see us.

“13 The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. 14 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.”

Psalms 103:13-14 NLT

God sees the bigger picture. He is writing our small story into His big story. Where what we want and demand now is determined by our short-sighted selfishness, God is working in all things for our good.

“23 Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. 24 But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. 25 No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”

John 2:23-25 NLT

How reassuring to know that Jesus does not place any unrealistic expectations on us because He knows us! He is never surprised by our failures or disappointed by our sin. All He asks of us is that we are humble enough to acknowledge and take responsibility for our wrongdoing instead of blaming someone or something other than our own sinful hearts.

“8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

1 John 1:8-9 NLT

What about our disappointment with people? We often place unreasonable expectations on a friend or family member, based on our standards, that they are not aware of or incapable of fulfilling. We judge him/her when he/she doesn’t come up to scratch. We feel let down. We might even cut off our association with that person or become depressed because he/she has failed us.

Doesn’t our attitude often arise from the deep-seated, inborn feeling that we are better than the other person? Of course, we would never do to him/her what he/she has done to us!

We fail to recognise or acknowledge that we are just as capable of sin as the other person, given the circumstances. Only by God’s grace can we resist our fleshly temptations in favour of doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

When we humbly recognise our own frailty, we will be more willing to give the one who “failed” us the benefit of the doubt. Our disappointment will give way to understanding and the willingness to forgive rather than to judge.

Sometimes, our circumstances are so stressful that we cry out to the Lord in despair, expecting an instant response, only to wait in vain for deliverance. We weep and wail in anguish, but God seems silent and inactive. Like Job, we plead for answers but no answer comes.

Something happened in the lives of Martha and Mary, Jesus’ dear friends, that illustrate Jesus’ seeming indifference and the disappointment they felt that led to unnecessary pain and grief.

Let‘s look at the background to the story. Martha, Mary and Lazarus lived together in Bethany, a village near Jerusalem. Jesus often seemed to use their home as a place of refuge. They were His good friends and when Lazarus fell ill, it was only natural that the sisters would call Him.

I often wonder where Lazarus fitted into this friendship. On Jesus’ earlier visits to the sisters’ home, he is never mentioned. Did he have reservations about Jesus? Did he resist Jesus’ teaching and side with the religious leaders?

John records that Jesus loved Lazarus. Was it one-sided? Of course, Jesus loved him regardless of his response. Was he not part of a family very special to the Lord?

It seems that Jesus directed this whole incident towards revealing Himself to all three members of this family that would secure their faith in Him once and for all. Why did He deliberately ignore their cry for help when Lazarus lay dying?

To have gone running back to heal Lazarus would have been a notable miracle for them but not any different or bigger than the many miracles He had done for sick people.

When Jesus and His disciples finally reached Bethany, it was too late. By this time, Lazarus’ body was already decomposing in the tomb. The sisters reacted differently to this disastrous disappointment in Jesus.

“20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.”

John 11:20

Martha, the practical one, met Jesus on His way in and reproached Him for His tardiness. She was not yet ready to trust Him enough to see the bigger picture beyond the present circumstances.

“21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

John 11:20-21 NLT

Martha’s confidence in Jesus was limited to what she knew of Him rather than in what He was in His fullness as the Son of God.

Jesus was quick to rebuke her for questioning His action. He hinted at His desire to reveal to this family a far greater truth about both the Father and Himself than they could ever imagine.

“4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”

John 11:4 NLT

I think Martha, at this point, was repeating her belief in a theological fact included in her religious system, but not in a powerful conviction, written on her heart, that gave her hope.

“23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

John 11:23-24 NLT

Jesus, always alert to opportunities to reveal who He was – the Son of God, used this situation to drive home the glory of the Father, revealed in the Son, who had power over death itself. His own resurrection, foretold before it happened, would guarantee the resurrection of all those who believe in Him.

Jesus’ declaration, “I am the resurrection and the life,” brought from Martha the confession,

27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”

John 11:27 NLT

… but did she really know what she was saying?

What about Mary?

Jesus was fully aware that Mary was avoiding Him. She refused to go out to meet Him until He called her. Her grief and disillusionment were so deep that she didn’t want to see Him.

Her words to Him, though exactly the same as Martha’s rebuke, were heavy with anger and anguish. Her faith in Him had been shattered and her hope destroyed. She lashed out at Jesus with all the emotion she could muster. Everything she thought she knew about Him was gone, wrecked by His seeming indifference.

Jesus wept, not at Lazarus’ death, but because of Mary’s failure to trust Him. Didn’t she understand that He had something far greater to reveal than His power to heal the sick? He came to make the true Father known, not the rigid, disciplinarian God Israel believed in.

The Father Jesus came to reveal would never ignore the cry of His child. However, if He seemed indifferent, it was His plan to do something far greater than His child expected.

Finally, when Mary saw the whole picture, her anger and bitterness turned to worship. In the next chapter, we see Mary at Jesus’ feet and Lazarus in Jesus’ company, reclining at the banquet table with Him.

Did Lazarus’ death experience at last convince him that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God? Gone were his reservations, gone his antagonism and opposition. What had his experience with death taught him? Did he have a glimpse of hell, or perhaps feel the hot breath of the flames?

Did Lazarus need an experience as extreme as death to convince him that Jesus spoke the truth about Himself and His Father?

Had Mary only realised that Jesus had a much bigger and better plan than she could ever imagine, she would not have wasted her emotional energy on grief and disappointment. If she had trusted Him and waited until He came, and seen what He could do, she would have brought Him joy instead of tears.

What lessons can we draw from this story about the way to handle our disappointments?

1. Disappointment will always be a part of life. However, our perspective will either produce emotional distress or grow a greater trust in the love of the Father.

If we consider God’s failure to meet our expectations when and how we demand, we will question His love for us, or even back down on our commitment to Him as Lord.

If we are convinced that God is in charge of our circumstances, we will be willing to submit to His timing and agenda. When bad things happen, we will wait for the final outcome instead of losing faith in Him.

“14 So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny.”

Job 23:14 NLT

2. If we think that people who let us down are the cause of our disappointment, we will always be at the mercy of fallible human beings.

If we recognise that we are as capable of failing them as they failed us, instead of judging, we will forgive out of compassion and understanding.

3. Disappointment can be a great test of the measure of our faith in God. Are we trusting Him only for what He can do for us, or is our faith in who He is, regardless of the outcome of our prayers.

If we are willing to wait for the outcome of our trial instead of insisting on an instant resolution, based on our conviction that God is working in all things for our good, we will save ourselves from a great deal of unnecessary emotional pain. Our confidence in God will lift us above the turmoil of circumstances into the pure atmosphere of peace no matter what we encounter on our journey through life.

“6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7 NLT